Newcastle United took a jaunt to the south coast this weekend and turned out a performance that, if nothing else, highlights the need we have for some activity this week before the transfer deadline.

Eddie Howe stopped short of criticising Newcastle’s movement in this window but signalled that there is still a disconnect between his role and the recruitment team – saying in his post match comments that “we’re not in control of it, so we’ll see”.

He was again asked about Sandro Tonali’s return and the idea that he will be like a new signing – a comment he rebuffed as he does not want it to look like we are happy with business done so far.

The uncertainty of the window and the future of some of our players was clear at Bournemouth.

Kieran Trippier, heavily linked with a move this window, was benched in favour of starting Tino Livramento, and much was made of his first-half head-in-hands moment (we were a goal down, to be fair) coupled with his walk off the pitch at full time, when he appeared to be crying.

Many take that to be a goodbye message from him. I’m choosing not to, given his impact when he came on. I find like with most things in life, flat out denial works really well in these situations. Maybe they were happy tears…

Newcastle’s predictability as a team has, I fear, meant we are becoming easy to deal with from an opposition point of view. Certainly on Sunday it looked like Bournemouth knew what they were up against and had an answer for us.

We need to see some movement in the transfer window as soon as possible to counter this predictability and offer us more dynamism.

Fans hope for European football next year, and we will struggle to do that without incomings and performances like Sunday.

Find more from Charlotte Robson at the True Faith: Newcastle United Podcast, external